Class of 2014 Profiles: Home-Run Hitter, On and Off the Field

As a four-year softball player and team co-captain at John Jay, Kalyssa Daley knows something about swinging for the fences. Off the field as well as on, she has proven herself an adept hitter.

Daley, a Criminology major, is wrapping up her undergraduate career with two feet already in the door at the FBI, where she has been an intern since the summer of 2013. Her experience there gives her an inside track to gain a full-time position after graduation.

The competitive, coveted internship involved 20 hours per week when classes were in session, and 40 hours per week the rest of the year. She won the internship with the help and mentorship of Professor John Walsh of the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration, who noted, “Kalyssa is a credit to John Jay and will be a valuable asset to the FBI.”

The internship is no pencil-sharpening, paper-pushing assignment. Daley has been working side by side with FBI agents and other employees on a variety of cases. Currently attached to the Reactive Violent Crime Squad, Daley said the high point of her experience thus far was assisting on a surveillance in a murder-for-hire investigation. “That was a long night for me,” she noted.

Once the softball season began in the spring semester, things got a little hectic for the talented infielder. “It got tough at times, with 6 A.M. practices and my internship after class,” she said. “I was definitely more tired this season.”

Still, tired or not, the 21-year-old Queens resident will leave John Jay with a smile of satisfaction. “Everything I wanted to accomplish here I did,” she said. “I’m graduating with honors, I led my team to the playoffs and I made the conference all-star team. I’m proud, and I know my parents are proud.”